Doctors to whom we appeal then judged concerning this our cause when no body could say they had favor or ill will for either party They had neither friendship nor enmity with you or us We did not as yet appeal with you to them as Judges and our cause was decided by them Neither you nor we were known to them and we recite their sentence given for us against you We did not yet contest with you and they pronouncing sentences for us we have overcome you Or will my Calvinist have the impudence to accuse as some do thâ—se grave Doctors of blindness A multitude of blind men forsooth avails nothing to find out the Truth and these were the errors and mistakes of those learned Prelates What an Age are we fal'n into Truth must be called error and error truth light darkness and darkness light S. Augustin S. Ambrose S. Crysostom S. Hierom are blind but Calvin and Stillingfleet see These Doctors I have called a Council of were persons of such Learning and Sanctity that if a Synod of Bishops were gathered out of the whole world it would be much if so many and such Doctors could be found to sit in it Neither indeed were these all at one time but God Almighty as pleases him and as he judges to be expedient scatters a few more excellent and faithful dispensers of his mysteries in several Ages and distances of places By such Planters Waterers Builders Pastors nursing Fathers after the Apostles the holy Church has encreased Now what an imprudence and what an impudence must it be for any to presume to accuse of the horrible crime of Idolatry so many holy egregious and memorable Doctors of the Catholick Verity and moreover together with them the whole Church of Christ to which divine Family they faithfully Ministring spiritual Food flourished with great glory in our Lord. Nay further they who dare to oppose the manifest Sentiment not of so many Platonical Aristotelieal or Zenonical Doctors but of so many Saints and illustrious Prelates in the Church of God and these some of them singularly endowed with human litterature and all of them eminently learned in the Sacred Letters have reason not so much to fear them as him who made them profitable Vessels to himself These Judges by how much the more desirable they ought to be unto thee if thou didst hold the Catholick Faith by so much thou hast more reason to fear them because thou opposest the Catholick Faith which they ministred to little and great and manifestly and stoutly defended against its Enemies yea against you then not as yet born For not only when they lived did they by their words but also by their writings which they left to Posterity did they strenuously defend the Catholick Faith that they might break in pieces your Arguments Hitherto S. Augustin l. 1. et 2. Contra Julianum I thought fit to adjoyn this Reflexion of S. Augustin though superabundant to the force of my Argument it being sufficient for my purpose to prove that the doctrin of the Real presence was generally believed in the Primitive Centuries of Christianity and so much evidently follows from the Authorities above cited For though some may be so self-conceited as to confess that S. Ambrose S. Crysostom and the rest of the holy Fathers Greek and Latin believed the doctrin of the Real presence but they with humble submission deemed it to be an Idolatrous and damnable doctrin yet few I think but have so much regard for thâ—se Primitive Doctors as to allow them so much iudgement as to know what was the belief of their several Churches in their daies and so much fidelity as to write the Truth as to this particular which is sufficient for the purport of my discourse Unless you can think that these holy Fathers were of one Faith and their several Flocks who reverenced them as Saints of another An Answer to an Objection But you will say if there be such a miraculous change wrought in the bread and wine in the holy Eucharist why does it not appear to our senses as well as other miraculous works of our Lord Jesus did When he turn'd water into wine it appeared such to the sight and tast of the Guests at the Marriage-Feast He did not barely tell them the water was turn'd into wine and exact their belief of his word contrary to the evidence of all their senses but convinced them that it was so by their very senses Why then in our present case if he turn wine into his blood does it not appear to our fight to be blood But barely to tell us that it is his blood and yet to let it tast and appear as it did how is this credible How is it not contrary to one but to all the Miracles that ever he wrought And this Argument is further strengthned for that it would hence follow we might call in question the whole mystery of Christianity For we therefore believing in our Lord Jesus as one indeed sent from God to teach us nothing but Truth because of his Miracles and we having no assurance of his Miracles but from our senses if our senses may be mistaken how can we tell but those who were eye-witnesses of his wonders were illuded and water for example was not turned by him into wine but only seemed wine to the tast and sight of those which were present and indeed remained water as before For why may not water remain water and yet seem to my tast wine as well as wine be changed into blood and yet seem to my tast and sight to remain wine For Answer to this Objection we must distinguish two sorts of Miracles with the ends for which they are wrought Some Miracles are wrought by Almighty God to draw the world to the Christian Faith and these must necessarily be the object of our senses else it could not reasonably be expected they should work their intended effect in them for whose sakes they are wrought For example If any one will by Miracle prove he is sent from God by raising a dead man to life or by turning water into wine he must make it evident to my senses that the man who was dead is alive and the water now wine and not barely tell me so Else he will be derided as an Impostor and impudent Lyer instead of being admired and received as a Messenger from Heaven and Oracle of Truth There are other Miracles which are wrought by the Almighty not as a motive to induce us to receive the true Faith but to sanctifie us when we have received it or for the necessity of working the salvation of the world Such are the Miracles of the Incarnation of the Son of God and all the spiritual effects wrought in the souls of Christians by any of the Sacraments Now these miraculous effects are not the object of our senses nor is there any reason they should be For the Church of Christ does not urge these to
perswade Unbelievers to acknowledge the true Faith but only professes that by these her members are sanctified For example we say by Baptism as an outward and visible sign is wrought an invisible grace in the soul of the person Baptized Though view the Child as much as you please you can by none of your senses perceive any mutation to be wrought In like manner the Church professes to believe the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God that our Lord Jesus though to outward appearance a mere man was also true God and yet by no sense was the Hypostatical Union of his soul and body to the Second person of the blessed Trinity discernable This was no doubt a great Miracle yea the miracle of miracles wrought amongst us but the end of its working being not by it as a motive to draw the world to Christianity but to constitute a fit person for the working of the salvation of the world it was not necessary it should be the object of our senses The same Lord and Saviour telling us that he was God though we could discern no Characters of Divinity in him by any of our senses he saying that he was God proving by other Miracles to our senses that he was sent from God to teach us nothing but Truth this was sufficient to secure our belief of his Deity In like manner in the mystery of the holy Eucharist this miraculous change being not wrought to allure Strangers to the Christian Faith but to sanctifie Believers and to work all those spiritual effects in them above-mentioned by being received by them and offered up in their presence for them c. it was not requisite this change should be the object of our senses Nay it was necessary it should not be the object of our senses For it being wrought to the intent we should eat and drink our dear Lord his body and blood it was necessary only the substance of bread and wine should be turned into the substance of our Lords flesh and blood the accidents of bread and wine remaining for that otherwise we should have a horror to eat raw flesh and drink true appearing blood As to the confirmation of the Argument that hence it would follow we cannot trust our senses and consequently not be certain of any miracle wrought by our Saviour To this I Answer We may alwaies trust our senses about their own objects and in due circumstances and when we have not positive grounds to think either God Almighty by himself or by an Angel or permissively by a Devil represents things otherwise then they are The three Children in the fiery Furnace might really think themselves in the midst of scorching Flames though they felt them not because they had reason to surmise God Almighty wrought a miracle out of those circumstances they had no reason to believe any thing to be ordinary fire which should not burn as fire Nor must they for this for ever after be in doubt whether they were not environed with Flames of fire or no. Nor must Abram because once in a particular circumstance he mistook three Angels for three men therefore never after believe his eyes whether he saw a man or no unless he first pinched him by the arm and felt that he had flesh and blood as himself Nor must one who in the presence of a Conjurer had taken pibble stones for grapes for ever after be doubtful whether he saw grapes or no till he tasted them Nor does it follow S. Mary Magdalen could not be certain she ever saw our B. Saviour because once her senses were mistaken concerning him taking him for the Gardener And in our present case our B. Saviour telling us that the Holy Eucharist is his body we have all reason to think that by miracle he makes it to be so whatsoever it seems to our senses Nor do Catholicks therefore out of such a circumstance doubt of all the bread they see whether it be not their Lords body or no Though I must tell you even here your senses are not mistaken for they do perceive what they seem to perceive that is the Accidents of bread and wine which remain and affect them in the same manner as when the substance under them was the substance of bread and wine but now is the substance of our Lords body and blood Substances are not discernable by any sense only we conclude by a Physical certitude such a substance is under such a complex of Accidents when we have nor positive grounds that God Almighty works a miracle as here we have he saying expresly of this object before us 'T is his body and 't is his blood But if there be so much to be said for this great mystery how comes it to pass so many have so great difficulty to believe it It is not because the mystery is not highly credible but it is partly from Nature and partly from Education and partly from want of a serious and frequent consideration of those Arguments which strongly evince the credibility of it and partly for want of strange desires of the happiness of the other life and of a heart void of inordinate affections to the things of this life Pleasures Riches and Honors 'T is partly from Nature I say For 't is not more difficult to our senses to practice Sobriety Temperance Chastity and Fasting then it is to our understanding to assent to Truths which seem to shock our reason and senses though proposed by never so great Authority Should you have seen our B. Saviour sucking his Mothers Breast in the Stable of Bethlehem whosoever should have told you the little Infant there was God Almighty the maker of Heaven and Earth Nature would have found a great difficulty to believe so strange an assertion and no less then it does now to believe that a little Wafer in the hands of a Priest is the same Christ both God and man veiled under the appearance of the common accidents of bread But had it been moreover from your infancy continually noysed in your ears by such as you reverenced for their learning and skill in divine matters that it was impossible for God to become man this would strangely have encreased your difficulty to believe a little Infant in nothing different as to outward appearance from other Children should be God But if to all this you should add never or very seldom and slightly to consider the positive Arguments for the belief of that mystery of the Incarnation but were ever still poring upon the difficulty and unlikeliness and seeming impossibility of any such thing 't is not possible you should ever come to the belief of it though the mystery be never so true in it self nor the Arguments to prove it never so evident and cogent But this is the case of us generally in England as to the mystery of the B. Sacrament and therefore no vvonder if generally it be not believed by us but we
A RATIONAL DISCOURSE CONCERNING TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN A Letter to a Person of Honor from a Master of Arts of the University of CAMBRIDGE Printed in the Year MDCLXXVI A RATIONAL DISCOURSE CONCERNING TRANSUBSTANTIATION SIR HAving lately had the honor of your Company you were pleased to signifie a particular difficulty which you had to believe the great mystery of Love and grand stumbling block of more ingenious Protestants the mystery of Transubstantiation in which if I could give you satisfaction to my best remembrance you promised me to reconcile your self to the Church of Rome Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco My own sad misfortune to have been Educated in the misbelief of this sublime Article of our Christian Faith till the five and twentieth year of my Age makes me very tenderly compassionate both to your self and all others whom I see to be involved in the same misery The all good and all powerful God who has so firmly made me to believe this strange miracle of Love that had I a thousand Lives I would most willingly through God's assistance lay them all down to Seal it with my blood give your Honor and all Mis-believers the like satisfaction to your and their Eternal comfort What satisfies me I shall in the best manner I am able Candidly propose to your mature and impartial consideration Sir My sentiment concerning the adorable Eucharist is that it is neither less nor more than the Sacred Body and Blood of God neither less nor more than whole Christ. God and Man Soul Body and Divinity though for the love and service of us Sinners veiled under the vile accidents and appearances of common Bread and ordinary Wine Concerning which mystery my first Assertion shall be Assertion 1. It is possible to the Omnipotent power of God to change the substance of Bread and Wine into the substance of our blessed Saviours Body and Blood And this our Adversaries generally grant Whence by the way take notice that all such Arguments and most of them are such as pretend to prove Transubstantiation impossible even in the judgment of our Adversaries are Sophisms and do not prove their Proposers inintent Else they must confess that two Contradictories may be true and that they can and do believe them both To wit that Transubstantiation is both possible and impossible and they can and do believe as much 'T is possible that they grant and 't is also impossible for that their Arguments attempt to prove Further. I prove Transubstantiation possible thus What you and I can do and every day actually do in four and twenty hours surely God Almighty can do in a moment But you and I in four and twenty hours turn Bread and Wine into the substance of our bodies by eating drinking and digesting of them Therefore our B. Saviour in a moment without eating and drinking by a mere Fiat or will that the substance of bread and wine be turned into the substance of his Body and Blood can effect it But then you will say the substance of the bread and wine must be transferred into Heaven that it may be changed into the substance of our Lord's body there But why so Is it not sufficient that the substance of our-Lord's body in Heaven be made to be under the accidents of bread and wine here But how can the substance of our Saviours body be in Heaven under such a measure of quantity and such accidents there and at the same time be here on Earth under a different quantity and accidents Why how is the substance of the same Air condens'd under a lesser quantity to day which rarified yesterday was under a greater quantity For the antient and commonly received definition of Rarefaction is a little matter under a great quantity and of Condensation is a great deal of matter under a little quantity For example In a Weather-glass the same air rarified fills twice as much space as did the same air condens'd as is evident to your eye So that the same substance of air when it is rarified fills the spaces A. and B. which when it was condens'd fill'd only the space A. and this without any addition of any new substance of air only the same substance by vertue of Rarefaction is under a greater quantity than it was before And will you pawn your soul the Omnipotent God cannot by Consecration make his own body be present to the spaces A and B which before Consecration was only present to the space A. Now who would ever have imagin'd such Doctrin as this concerning Rarefaction and Condensation should have been taught by an Aristotle to explicate Nature and not rather have been invented by some Christian Philosopher to declare the supernaturality of Transubstantiation so aptly does it agree with that hidden and holy mystery 2. None make difficulty of a spirits being in different places at once The soul is generally acknowledged to be all in the head and all in the foot as Almighty God is all in France and all in England not one part of him here and another there not one God in France and another in England We indeed because we never saw the same thing in two places but always different things in different places are apt to imagine it impossible for the same thing at the same time to be in two different places Hence it follows whatsoever involves not a contradiction being possible to God Almighty let our phansie say what it will we must follow our reason and acknowledge Almighty God can make not only a spiritual substance but even a material one be in two places at once unless we can shew it includes a contradiction To be here and not to be here is indeed a contradiction but to be here and there at the same time is no contradiction else neither our soul nor God Almighty himself could be all here and all in another place at the same time Now will any one who is forced by his Faith and Reason to acknowledge a spiritual substance is actually in two places at once pawn his eternal salvation as he does who purely for this difficulty continues Protestant that God Almighty cannot by all his Omnipotency make a corporeal substance be here and in Heaven at the same time Now that the bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist should affect our senses in the same manner as they did before their change into our B. Saviours body and blood this ought to seem no impossible wonder to a Christian who believes so many miracles in our Lords Incarnation Conception and Nativity of a Virgin Such a Miracle as this our Lord wrought when he appeared to S. Mary Magdalen in the shape of a Gardner His face no doubt was his own true face but it wrought upon S. Mary Magdalens eyes as if it had been the face of the Gardiner And here I had thought to have inserted the different ways which different Schools of Catholick Divines take to explicate how this